- A reminder that the deadline for the current round of Community Highway Applications is 21 July.
- A detailed A-Z of Highways, with information on all the areas our service covers is now available via the ‘Your Local Role’ page on the Mine.
Following an award of funding from Sussex Lund, WSCC countryside services has planted 350 metres of native hedgerow along the southern boundary of Buchan Country Park. The hedgerow will benefit birds, small mammals and pollinating insects.
Support from the Friends of Buchan Country park, who provided extra funding to complete the project, has been crucial in delivering this.
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Thanks to two successful Community Highways Schemes, residents in East Grinstead can now walk more safely. An abrupt end to the pavement near Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead caused residents to have to walk in the road.
With support from East Grinstead County Councillor, Liz Bennett, and adjacent landowners, a Community Highways Scheme application from residents has enabled WS Highways to connect the footway.
Liz said, “I would like to thank the residents who gave their permission to allow this to happen. It’s a great example of community and council working together”.
Local residents Kerri and Seb said, "We would like to thank you for all your help and support...Our neighbours are also very happy and we are all looking forward to being able to walk safely along this stretch of road."
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Extensive footpath improvements on Little Kings Street, East Grinstead have improved accessibility to local amenities in the town centre. Steep steps have been replaced with a gentle slope and the pavement has been widened. New double yellow lines have been painted to increase resident and pedestrian safety.
Community Highways Schemes are a part of WSCC’s Improving Local Places and Spaces programme. Communities are encouraged to apply for highways improvements where there are local concerns associated with the highway.
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WSCC has been leading innovations in traffic signalling in recent years, working closely with contractors and suppliers to trial new technology.
Innovations include:
• Sensors at junctions that feed pollutant levels to monitoring systems to control traffic spikes and lower pollution.
• Trialling a virtual bus priority system - remotely sending messages between traffic signal controllers, to reduce delays.
• Live streaming cameras on junctions to enable signals engineers to remotely view traffic conditions.
• Vehicle classification detection to help reduce air pollution and improve vehicle throughput.
Traffic signals at a busy crossroads in Bognor Regis have been replaced with a more reliable and energy-efficient alternative.
The previous traffic signals, at the Chichester Road/Town Cross Avenue/ Bersted Street crossroads have been replaced by lights that use the latest LED technology, to reduce maintenance and save energy.
The scheme cost around £110,000 and is part of the County Council’s multi-million-pound Highway, Transport and Planning Delivery Programme, details of which can be viewed online.
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Ash trees are common throughout West Sussex, providing valuable habitats for wildlife. However, these trees can become infected with Ash Dieback (ADB), which causes damage to their vascular tissues and blocks water and nutrients supply. This causes branches to die back and dry out, complicating felling works.
WSCC has created an Action Plan to limit the impacts of ADB and promote long-term recovery of our trees. WSCC tree plan and a WSCC Tree Forum will oversee the delivery of this strategy.
So far, surveys of A and B road networks have been completed, and C-Class and unclassified road survey work will continue this summer.
Felling of trees with ADB has been completed in some areas, using an annual ADB budget of £1.5m.
WSCC is working with partners to identify opportunities for joined up working. We will also be reviewing WSCC land and exploring areas with District, Borough, Parish and Town councils that are suitable for tree planting.
Once felling is complete and the ground is opened to light, natural regeneration will take place.
“It’s about ensuring quality, not just quantity, of trees to ensure that functioning woodland ecosystems are provided that deliver multiple benefits from biodiversity, flood protection as well as carbon sequestration.” - Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT).
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The Local Transport Improvements Team has been working with Gossop Green School in Crawley to deliver a new path on the grass verge at Capel Lane. The need for a path was flagged-up in the school’s travel plan, to improve pedestrian access to the school and local community areas.
The new path was completed last month and builds upon the success of newly installed bollards and dropped kerbs at the other entrances to the school.
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Emergency works have demolished and reconstructed a culvert in Parham.
After a resident contacted WSCC to report a ‘depression in the carriageway’ over a brick arch culvert, we discovered that half of the culvert had collapsed and a replacement was necessary.
The culvert has been added to our inventory and will be inspected every 22 months and maintained along with the rest of WSCC’s structures.
The newly installed pipe is made of 100% recycled, high strength material.
A resident got in contact to say, "Congratulations on the excellent restoration of the culvert on Greatham Lane. A beautiful job, thank you" - Oliver
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People need highways to move from place to place, so do pollinators. That's why we're introducing a 'Pollinator Highway' in Lancing. WSCC has partnered with Adur & Worthing Councils and Lancing Parish Council to deliver this project in line with the Council’s Pollinator Action Plan.
Along the A2025 in Lancing, we have left road verges to grow a bit longer. Pollinators don't fly in straight lines, so the actual route will cover an area approximately 300 metres to the east and west.
We're encouraging residents and businesses to let part of their back gardens or other green spaces go slightly wilder to link-up natural habitats. Even plating up a window box with native wildflowers could really benefit pollinators. This will enable pollinating insects to increase their range and pollinate more plants.
Along the pollinator highway, we won’t be using any herbicides to control weed growth. Instead we will allow weeds that don’t break up the pavements and roads to grow.
Local people can assist us by pulling up and disposing of weeds on the pavement. Please do not attempt to get rid of noxious weeds or weeds in the gutter or on the road itself. If you see any weed problems in these areas please report them via Love West Sussex.
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Our first ‘Nature verge network’ meeting was hosted by the Stakeholder and Partnerships team on 20 May.
18 people attended from seven of the Community Road Verge groups we’re working with. We had some really constructive discussions on best practise, how groups have approached different elements of their projects, advice on how to manage wildflower areas most effectively, and Nick Field from Arundel Bee Project shared a little about how his project is going.
A range of amateur ecologists, and a couple of more knowledgeable specialists in different environmental areas came along – all passionate about helping nature thrive in West Sussex.
Residents were encouraged to know that there are other groups in the county working towards the same goal.
We’re hoping to host these meetings every three months or so.
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During volunteer week, 14 Public Rights of Way (PRoW) volunteers got stuck-in building a 6m bridge replacement on a Public Footpath in Lurgashall. Thanks to their efforts, the new bridge was completed in just three days and the footpath is now safe and open again.
We're hugely grateful for all the volunteers that have given their time throughout the last year to improve our PRoW, whether that be undertaking inspections or helping with renovation projects like this one.
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Produced by the Stakeholder and Partnerships team, Highways Transport and Planning. Please contact steve.hill@westsussex.gov.uk or jessica.macey@westsussex.gov.uk with any comments or suggestions regarding what you like and don’t like in this e-builletin and what you’d like to see in future editions.
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